Historic Rochester's second strip club
by Dan Bloom
Plans for a second strip club in historic Rochester have
been approved despite residents' fears.
Medway councillors rubber-stamped the
controversial £150,000 venue at the Casino Rooms.
Historic Rochester Residents’ Association chairman Philip Ruby
argued the strip club, called Tenshi, would bring down the
tone of the High Street.
Club owner Aaron Stone's lawyer Stephen Thomas claimed the
businessman had run sexual entertainment in the Casino Rooms almost
every weekend since he took over in 1992.
The law is changing in April, when venues across Britain will
need separate licences to run strip shows.
Mr Thomas told councillors: “We will only advertise on the
internet. No one in Rochester High Street will necessarily know
what’s going on, just as they haven’t for the last 19 years.”
The licence is the second to be granted in Medway after
Charlotte’s Bar, just a few yards away in Rochester High
Street.
Mr Ruby said: “One within a third of a mile is enough. This
isn’t a cafe society, it’s young people getting ‘pre-loaded’ and
coming down to get cheap alcohol.”
The club will take up half of the ground floor of the Casino
Rooms, use a separate entrance and punters will be watched
constantly on at least 18 CCTV cameras.
There will be four lap-dancing booths, a VIP area with one pole
and a stage with another. Conversion work is expected to take a
month.
Full report of the meeting and detailed plans in the
Medway Messenger, out Friday.
14/02/12
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